Black Panther and Blackkklansman ensured a diverse round of nominations at the Golden Globes – but female directors were snubbed again.
Politics will be at the forefront of the 76th running of the awards show with Vice, the biographical drama on controversial former US vice president Dick Cheney, leading the way for films with six nominations.
In a diverse best picture (drama) category, Marvel’s superhero blockbuster Black Panther is up against Blackkklansman, Bohemian Rhapsody, If Beale Street Could Talk and A Star Is Born.
Spike Lee’s Blackkklansman, which tells the true story of a black police officer who infiltrates the Ku Klux Klan, is up for a total of four awards while If Beale Street Could Talk, based on James Baldwin’s novel of the same name, is nominated for three.
Black Panther, set in the fictional African country of Wakanda, is also up for three awards, while Crazy Rich Asians – the first major Hollywood film to feature an all-Asian cast in 25 years – is up for two.
But there are no women in the best director category. Instead the nominees are Bradley Cooper for A Star Is Born, Alfonso Cuaron for Roma, Peter Farrelly for Green Book, Adam McKay for Vice and Lee for Blackkklansman.
The snub means Barbra Streisand – who took home the best director prize for 1984’s Yentl – remains the only woman to ever win the prize.
She is one of only five women to be nominated in the category, as well Jane Champion in 1994 for The Piano, Sofia Coppola in 2004 for Lost In Translation, Kathryn Bigelow in 2010 for The Hurt Locker and 2013 for Zero Dark Thirty, and Ava DuVernay in 2015 for Selma.
The lack of female directors comes after Natalie Portman made a point of criticising the Globes for the same issue last year.
During the televised show in January, Portman went off script while presenting the best director prize and said: “And here are the all-male nominees.”
The Golden Globes, presented by Sandra Oh and Adam Samberg, will take place in Los Angeles on January 6.